Spectator Syria debate: Should the West intervene?

Should the West intervene in Syria? This week’s Spectator debate on this topic saw an impressive swing of opinion in the audience once the speakers had made their cases for and against intervention. All agreed that the first part of the motion debated – ‘Assad is a war criminal: the West must intervene in Syria’ – wasn’t in doubt, but while Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Dr Wael Aleji and Dr Alan Mendoza argued that the West had a clear case for intervening in various ways, Sir Andrew Green, Dr Halla Diyab and Douglas Murray argued that intervention would not improve the crisis at all.

Alan Mendoza, founder of the Henry Jackson Society, argued that the case against intervention ignored what had happened in Syria since the conflict began. ‘The sad fact is that every ill that was ascribed to our possible intervention in Syria has arisen, but because of our non-intervention,’ he said, adding:

‘There is a full-scale sectarian conflict in play, not because of intervention but because al-Assad has used terror to turn Alawites against their neighbours… We are discovering that not arming one side just means that you end up with an unlevel killing field.